God suppression: does thinking about God reduce the creativity of monotheists?

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.obhdp.2021.03.001

Explanation

As individuals are given wider freedom to practice and express their faith at work, it is conceivable that believers will spend at least part of their work life actively thinking about God.

Yet, despite the central role that belief in God plays in people's lives, the results in the study pay little attention to the impact of actively thinking about God on work performance.

This study investigates the relationship between thinking about God and creativity among believers in monotheistic religions.

Six studies were conducted using different populations, mixed methods, and complementary measures of creativity.

Results provide converging evidence that believers are less creative than non-believers in a meta-analysis of experimental data and that this effect is enhanced when they are actively thinking about God.

Thinking about God activates the passive followership mindset that inhibits believers' creativity.